Thin Ice is a spin-off from the Frost Bite series, released on November 28, 2007[1]. Like the previous Frost Bite game, the player controls an eskimo whose goal is to sink monsters on the ice. This game was one of the launch titles for the iPhone and Android Nitrome Touchy, launched on October 31st, 2012 for iPhone and November 21st, 2012 for Android.

Enemies

Horned jumping creatures - These enemies have horns and jump up and down while following the Eskimo. They move quickly, but they also move slow at times, especially when the Eskimo is not in their sight.

Bull beasts - Bull beasts will charge towards the Eskimo when they see her. They can fall into water by walking into it, or by falling after the ice beneath it has been cut. They move fast when charging, and slow when walking.

Flying monsters - These monsters drop eggs, which create small blasts, when they are flying. They can only be dropped into water while they are on land.

Ice shooting creatures - These monsters move around and will shoot out three pieces of ice that will go up in the sky, come down, and try to hit the player.

Giant white walruses - These monsters are big, and they will stay in one place. Their only attack is to jump up and make a large blast. They also appear in Frost Bite 2.

Bird monsters - They multiply a few seconds after they have been dropped in the water. These enemies are often difficult to sink.

Underwater worm - Once the underwater worm reaches the Eskimo's resting place, he will break out of the ice in an attempt to injure her. The player can see him by his shadow underneath the water.

Hazards

Ice crystals - These will freeze the Eskimo in a block of ice for a couple of seconds. During this time, the player keeps the same momentum that she had while she slid into it. The Eskimo is also vulnerable to damage.

Snowballs - These will roll completely one way, respawn, and come back the same way again. They will not hurt enemies.

Spike sphere chains - These will be spinning, either fast or slow. If the Eskimo touches any part of the hazard, she will receive damage.

Thin ice - When the Eskimo skates on this, she will fall in it. The ice has small cracks in it, and the player can see the water underneath it.

Pick ups

BONUS letters - When the player picks up one of these letters by themselves, they won't get any points. However, if all are picked up, the player will receive 1000 points.

Frozen treats

Popsicles - All popsicles are worth 25 points. They are collected by making contact with them using the Eskimo. There are two types: green and orange.

Ice cream with sprinkles - 50 points

Ice cream with pink syrup - 50 points

Ice Cream with chocolate cookie - 100 points

Powerups

Clock - Gives the player extra time.

Lighting bolt - This temporarily makes the player invulnerable to everything except falling into the water.

Snowflake - This freezes everything on the screen other than the player.

Heart - This gives a quarter of the player's health back.

Glitches

Thin Ice Glitch

A bird monster gets stuck on the border of a level.

Sometimes a hole will not be made in the ice, even when the player made a closed shape. This often happens if the shape is rather small. Other times, it is rare.

Sometimes, the hole will never disappear. This usually happens with very small holes.

In the last level, the the letter "N" of the bonus letters, "BONUS", was missing. This has been fixed, however.

In any level with bird monsters, the smallest bird monsters can get stuck in the sides of the ice bordering the level. This is especially apparent in level 18, where there are many small bird monsters hopping around. While only occurring very rarely, this glitch prevents the Eskimo from drawing a complete circle around the bird monster, and thus the level must be restarted.

Nitrome Touchy version

Thin Ice is Nitrome Touchy compatible. The screen displays a top-down view of the Eskimo, with a button on either sides that read "Skate" and an icon at the top of the screen reading "Tilt". To move, the player must press and hold one of the "Skate" buttons, causing the Eskimo to glide forward. Steering is done by slightly rotating the device in the corresponding direction the player wants the Eskimo to turn in. They are required to make a small circular motion for the Eskimo to make a closed shape on ice, effectively cutting it away.

The controls for Thin Ice using the Nitrome Touchy app on a smartphone.

The result of a player using the Nitrome Touchy app on a smartphone to control the Eskimo on a computer monitor.

Beta content

Present in the game's code is unused frozen text for a hyphen (-), apostrophe ('), slash (/), and full colon (:). Also present in the game is a "sound fx holder" - what apparently what seems to be an object that would fit into a level editor. The "sound fx holder" consists of the word "sound fx:", followed by a name for each sound effect.

The "sound fx holder" is possibly the only remnant of what seems to be a level editor. Also existing in the game's code is an image that has an image of text, an image present for every specified sound effect. However, although all specified sound effects have an image, not all may have an actual sound effect to go with the given image.

Gallery

The unused hyphen

The unused apostrophe

The unused slash

The unused full colon

TICK. Likely refers to the ticks heard during the last ten seconds of a level.

POWERUP. Likely refers to the sound heard when getting a point granting or helpful object

SOUND FX: POWERUP HIT CRACK SPLASH SPLOSH TICK ROLLOVER NITROMEThis image likely refers to a section of a level editor when sound would be assigned to each name. Notice the large space between "SPLASH" and "SPLOSH".